Re: [PATCH v5 03/15] linkage: Add DECLARE_NOT_CALLED_FROM_C

Thomas Gleixner
2021-10-15T16:05:38Z

On Thu, Oct 14 2021 at 19:51, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 13, 2021, at 11:16 AM, Sami Tolvanen wrote:
>>
>> +/*
>> + * Declares a function not callable from C using an opaque type. Defined as
>> + * an array to allow the address of the symbol to be taken without '&'.
>> + */
> I’m not convinced that taking the address without using & is a
> laudable goal. The magical arrays-are-pointers-too behavior of C is a
> mistake, not a delightful simplification.

>> +#ifndef DECLARE_NOT_CALLED_FROM_C
>> +#define DECLARE_NOT_CALLED_FROM_C(sym) \
>> + extern const u8 sym[]
>> +#endif
>

> The relevant property of these symbols isn’t that they’re not called
> from C. The relevant thing is that they are just and not objects of a
> type that the programmer cares to tell the compiler about. (Or that
> the compiler understands, for that matter. On a system with XO memory
> or if they’re in a funny section, dereferencing them may fail.)

I agree.

> So I think we should use incomplete structs, which can’t be
> dereferenced and will therefore be less error prone.

While being late to that bike shed painting party, I really have to ask
the question _why_ can't the compiler provide an annotation for these
kind of things which:

1) Make the build fail when invoked directly

2) Tell CFI that this is _NOT_ something it can understand

-void clear_page_erms(void *page);
+void __bikeshedme clear_page_erms(void *page);

That still tells me:

1) This is a function

2) It has a regular argument which is expected to be in RDI

which even allows to do analyis of e.g. the alternative call which
invokes that function.

DECLARE_NOT_CALLED_FROM_C(clear_page_erms);

loses these properties and IMO it's a tasteless hack.

Thanks,

tglx